Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of several endogenous proteins that play key roles in neuronal development. BDNF influences nerve growth as a neurotrophin and/or as a myokine. Therefore there is a need for improved methods for inducing expression of BDNF. The present invention relates to the discovery that BDNF can be endogenously induced to increase expression by administration of DNP, and that there is a dose range between 0.001 mg/kg to less than 10 mg/kg that is useful in expression of BDNF and not harmful to the patient. Further, many approaches are underway to get BDNF across the blood brain barrier to treat a host of diseases. For example, these diseases include, but are not limited to, traumatic injury, stroke, Huntington's disease, Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Lupus, Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes, Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY), Myasthenia gravis (MG), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Graves' disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), metabolic syndrome, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), severe burns, aging, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Friedreich's Ataxia, Batten Disease, Alzheimer's disease, Optic neuritis, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), Autism, Rett syndrome, Batten Disease, Angelman's Syndrome, Leigh disease, Fragile-X Syndrome, Schizophrenia, Depression, Parkinson's disease and mitochondrial diseases. Treatment works by the process of reversing, slowing or preventing neuromuscular, neurodegenerative, autoimmune, developmental and/or metabolic disorders.